Ever watch the long-running South African soap opera Generations on the Africa Channel? You should, because it's wild on the ears.

In the clip above, you can hear the actors slipping between English and another language, sometimes within the same sentence, always seamlessly. This practice amongst bilinguals is called code switching (it's apparently very prominent in South Africa). When I was channel surfing some time ago, I watched a bit of an episode and couldn't believe the dialogue. Turns out it's a bit groundbreaking. From Rhodes Journalism Review:

Another milestone for Generations is that over the past year in particular, the producers have shifted the language goalposts, moving away from the original, all English dialogue, to an almost "50/50-mix" (as Mandoza would say) of African languages. There are English subtitles when the actors speak in various African languages, from Xhosa to Sotho.

For as fascinating as it is to read about, it's absolutely crazy to listen to — especially if you aren't expecting it. (Call it "South African flavor," as Chris Brown charmingly called it in his own appearance on the show.) There are so many twists and turns that it sounds like gymnastics to these dumb American monolingual ears. That the subtitles cut off mid-sentence when the English comes in makes the entire experience even more disorienting.